LANDNET AMERICAS A Virtual Office for the Summit of the Americas Property Systems Initiative www.Lan

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LANDNET AMERICAS A Virtual Office for
theSummit of the Americas Property Systems
Initiativewww.LandNetAmericas.org
Mariana Herrera (OAS) in coordination with Jolyne
Sanjak (USAID/LAC)
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Why Property Registration?

• To provide those who have informal property
  rights or limited access to property with
  economic opportunity, better governance and
  sociopolitical participation.

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Main issues in property registration and land
management in the Hemisphere

• large numbers of informal property holders
• insecurity of indigenous property rights
• lack of adequate land dispute resolution
  mechanisms
• centralization of authority
• complicated land administration systems
• lack of information and disorderly data on
  property rights

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Summit of the Americas Process

• Heads of Governments declare property
  registration as key to Poverty Alleviation.
• Property registry reform influences Summit
  goals
• justice, human rights, gender equality,
  education and economic integration.

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Second Summit of the Americas Santiago, Chile
1998

• Heads of Governments addressed the issue
  Eradication of Poverty and Discrimination the
  most relevant to the work outlined in the Plan of
  Action.
• To rationalize and standardize their respective
  national property registration systems, Member
  States agreed
• adopting transparent, simplified procedures
• disseminating information
• utilizing, whenever feasible, state-of-the-art
  technologies
• incorporating alternative dispute resolution
  mechanisms
• avoiding overlapping administrative fees

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Third Summit of the Americas Quebec, Canada 2001

• Under the mandate Growth with Equity
• States call for focus on legal reforms.
• Request multilateral cooperation institutions to
  continue supporting and strengthening, their
  financial and technical assistance programs.

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Special Summit of the Americas Monterrey, Mexico
2004

• The heads of State and Government from the
  Americas agreed on strengthening property rights
  and expand the use of property as collateral.

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The Inter-Summit Property Systems Initiative
(IPSI)

• In response to the Summit mandate, the U.S.
  Agency for International Development (USAID) and
  the Government of El Salvador, in partnership
  with the Organization of American States (OAS),
  created IPSI.

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IPSIs Objectives

• Help countries rationalize and modernize their
  property registration systems.
• Improve coordination among donors, government
  agencies and civil society.
• Foster consensus building among client
  governments, donors and partners through dialogue
  and information sharing.
• Help shape donor projects related to property
  registration.
• Mobilize civil society resources towards
  achieving the property registration goals.

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IPSIs activities to date

• Initiated in 1998 with creation of website
• Property-Registration.org as tool for sharing
  information and supporting research.
• Comparative study of Land Markets in C.A.
• Organized regional Policy Dialogue Forum in C.A.
  which led to creation of Permanent Council of
  Property Registrars for C.A. and Panama.
• In 2002, transformed this tool from a static
  web-page to a community of practice
  LandNetAmericas.org

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What is LandNetAmericas.org?

• IPSIs new interactive community of practice is
  called LandNet Americas, url LandNetAmericas.org
• Co-branded, bilingual portal (English- Spanish)
  established with support from multilateral
  organizations (IDB, GTZ and WB), NGOs and private
  organizations -- others welcome!

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Registration
Highlights
Knowledge Center
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LandNetAmericas offers

• Information on the Summit of the Americas
  mandates and implementation review process
• Regular updates of significant events and
  documents
• Direct access for registered users to upload
  their documents, news and events to the site
• Streamlined searching through the Knowledge
  Center.
• A platform for collaboration that avoids
  duplication of efforts -- this virtual office
  belongs to the community rather than any one
  member!
  

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Key Areas

• Conflict and alternative dispute resolution
• Decentralization
• Indigenous peoples and communal tenure
• Land administration
• Land policy
• Land tenure
• Legal frameworks
• Market and credit access
• Modernization of the cadastre and registry
• Regularization of property rights

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Knowledge Center
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Sources of information

• International development donors initial
  population of database by Jolyne Sanjak (USAID)
  and the Land Tenure Center (Beverly Phillips and
  Lynn Burns.)
• Multilateral organizations continual search and
  investigation to update archives by OAS staff
  (Natasha Sacouman and Mariana Herrera.)
• Civil society organizations contributions by
  community groups, such as the Central American
  Virtual Library (BiViCAT), our focal point in the
  region.
• Private foundations Development Gateways AiDA
  database automatically uploads information this
  feature could be repeated with other databases if
  interested partners are found.

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Final Remarks

• The technical bases for creating comprehensive
  and modern property information systems are
  known. Introducing appropriate institutional
  change remains the big challenge.
• We invite you to participate in our community of
  practice at LandNetAmericas.org, where you will
  be able to interact directly with policy experts,
  advisors and other members of the public.
• Please Visit Us!